1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a movable connector positioning mechanism which prevents unnecessary movement of a movable connector, to thus properly locate the connector in a predetermined position before it is fitted to a mating connector so that the connector can easily mate with the mating connector.
2. Related Art
A vehicle, for example, typically includes various types of parts which are mounted on its surface and supplied with electric power. For instance, FIG. 10 illustrates a lamp 9 which is mounted to an inside roof of a vehicle.
In order to mount the lamp 9 to the roof, a mounting configuration is used in which a vehicle body connector 3, having a wire 1 connected thereto, is mounted on a roof bow 5, and a lamp connector 7, which engages with the vehicle body connector 3, is mounted on the lamp 9. Thus, the electrical coupling of the connectors is completed simultaneously with the mounting of the lamp 9.
In such a mounting configuration, in order to absorb relative misregistration between the two connectors 3 and 7, the vehicle body connector 3 must be fitted relative to the lamp connector 7 while moving the vehicle body connector 3 relative to the position of the lamp connector 7 when the lamp 9 is to be mounted. It is therefore advantageous to use a connector which is movable so as to absorb misregistration that develops when mounting the lamp.
FIG. 11 is an exploded, perspective view of such a conventional movable connector. In this movable connector 11, an elastic retaining piece portion 13 is formed on each side face of a connector housing of a rectangular parallelepiped shape, and retaining projections 13a of these elastic retaining piece portions 13 are retainingly engaged with a peripheral edge portion of a mounting hole 15, thus securing the movable connector 11 on the roof bow 5.
In this movable connector 11, the connector housing is retained relative to the mounting hole 15 through the elastic retaining piece portions 13. The movable connector 11 can move slightly due to elastic deformation of the elastic retaining piece portions 13, and thereby absorb misregistration between the connector 11 and a mating connector (not shown).
In the above conventional movable connector 11, however, the elastic retaining piece portions 13, formed respectively on the four side faces of the connector housing, are resiliently urged against the four sides of the peripheral edge of the rectangular mounting hole 15, so that the retaining projections 13a retainingly engage with the peripheral edge portion of the mounting hole 15. Therefore, if a force acts on the movable connector 11 to turn it about an axis c of insertion before the two connectors are fitted together as shown in FIG. 12, the elastic retaining piece portions 13 are flexed inwardly so that the movable connector can easily turn or rotate in the retained condition. If such rotation is excessive, the misregistration is not absorbed properly, and it is thus difficult to mate the connector 11 with the mating connector.
Another type of movable connector 23 is shown in FIG. 13, in which an insertion axis c of a retaining portion 19 and a fitting axis e of the connector portion 21 do not coincide with each other. Hence, if the retaining portion 19 turns about the insertion axis c, the connector portion 21 moves on a circle having its center on the retaining portion 19, and is thus greatly displaced out of position. Therefore, the connector portion 21 must be manually returned to the proper position, which requires additional time and labor. Furthermore, the lamp 9 can be mounted in such a manner so that the connector 21 is not properly fitted.